.::REALITYRECALL::.

I feel the recent in-app-purchase issue where kids are charging hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees by buying game items in real-world money can best be expressed in animated video form. Luckily, the Taiwanese are happy to oblige. More »

Rovio’s Angry Birds has been copied by many other mobile game developers but none of them come close to the number of downloads. In 2010 Angry Birds topped Apple’s App Store as the top paid app. As for their Android app, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka announced at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) that the free-with-ads […]

Related posts:

1. Angry Birds Seasons now available in the Android Market
2. “Flock yeah!” Angry Birds is officially coming to Windows Phone
3. Video: Angry Birds vs. Evil Pigs

Whether you love or loathe Apple, you have to be happy with the company’s aggressive upgrade of the iPad. It has led to Samsung, purveyor of an Android 3.0 tablet by the name of Galaxy Tab 10.1, to look more closely at its own hardware and pricing model and, according to executive VP Lee Don-Joo, “improve the parts that are inadequate.” We don’t know what those are, specifically, however he notes that “Apple made [the iPad 2] very thin” and also goes on to say that Samsung will be rethinking its pricing strategy with the Tab 10.1. It was originally going to cost more than the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, but in light of Apple’s new product, Samsung might have to cut into its profit margins… or maybe even forgo profits altogether to make its new Tab a success.

Samsung finds parts of Galaxy Tab 10.1 ‘inadequate’ compared to iPad 2, reconsiders pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The US Air Force will today launch its second X-37B spaceplane from Cape Canveral to intesnse interest from Russia and China, which are suspicious about its secret payload.

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If you can use Thrutu on your Android phone, it's pretty neat. When you're on a phone call, the app gives you a sliding drawer on top of your dialer to give you easy access to send pictures, contact info, location, etc. to the person you're talking to. It's quick and painless—just think about how many times you've tried to track down a phone number or explained directions on the phone, none of those situations would be as easy as just directly sending what you need. More »

We’ve caught wind of many whispers about a Windows designed specifically for tablets, but the latest scuttlebutt states we won’t get to add them to our mobile arsenal anytime soon — Bloomberg‘s anonymous sources report that Microsoft won’t release a tablet operating system until the 2012 back-to-school season, and will only begin to publically test the OS at the end of this year. That suggests not only a timeframe, but also a likely plan — it’s not hard to imagine Microsoft would enjoy a slice of the educational market before iPads replace textbooks entirely at schools with cash to burn. Of course, Dell seems to think there’ll be a Windows 8 slate in January of next year.

Microsoft tablet OS not coming until fall 2012? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android: Facebook’s official app isn’t a total suckfest anymore, but it’s still far from perfect. If you’re still waiting for push notifications, comment liking, and friend tagging in statuses, Flow adds these features and more for a great Facebook experience on Android. More »

We know that a Wi-Fi-only Xoom is out there, lurking. And according to Droid Life, it’s going to be showing up soon at Sam’s Club for the entirely reasonable price of $540. Assuming it’s a 32GB model, that undercuts iPad 2 by a cool sixty bucks. More »

Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall has taken over from Newfoundland and Labrador’s Danny Williams as Canada’s most popular premier, a new poll suggests.

The Charlie Sheen circus now has an official Guinness World Record under its tent: this morning the agency verified Sheen’s claim to the “Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers” record, a feat he accomplished in 25 hours and 17 minutes. Huh! An actual win! [Mashable] More »

(Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog.)

Whether it’s Google Places with Hotpot or Google Latitude, we’re working on helping you connect the people you care about with places you love. Now, when you’re rating your dinner spot using Google Maps for Android, you can share your review with even more people by posting it to Twitter.

Post your ratings and reviews to Twitter
When you rate and review places like restaurants or cafes from Google Places, you can share valuable recommendations with your Hotpot friends and across Google’s products – in search results, on google.com/hotpot, and on Place pages. But we wanted you to be able to share your recommendations even more broadly. So today, you can start sharing your ratings and reviews with your followers on Twitter directly from your Android-powered device.

When rating on the go using our rating widget, just choose to Post review to Twitter and connect your Twitter account. You’ll get a preview of your tweet and will be able to post your ratings and reviews moving forward.

Check-ins: ping friends and search for places
Starting last month, you could share information about the place you were at, in addition to your location, by checking in at places using Google Latitude. Starting today, if you see nearby Latitude friends on the map and want to ask them where they are, you can quickly “ping” them instead of having to text or call. They’ll receive an Android notification from you asking them to check in at a place. And when they check in using your request, you’ll get a notification right back so you know which place to go to meet up with them.

You’ll also be able to more easily check yourself in at the right place. Sometimes there are a lot of nearby places around you, and the right one is missing from the suggested list of places to check in. You can now quickly search for the right place using the Search more places button.

To start posting Hotpot ratings to Twitter and pinging Latitude friends, just download Google Maps 5.2 from Android Market here (on Android OS 1.6+ devices) everywhere it’s already available. Please keep in mind that both Latitude friends need version 5.2 in order to use the new “ping” feature. Learn more in the Help Center.

Posted by Adam Connors, Google Maps for mobile team

The only Honeycomb tablet you can buy right now is the Motorola Xoom, but there are of course other ways to download it to your tablet. Especially if you can’t wait to start using Google Body, which explores all the muscles, organs and veins of the female body—apparently a male body will be added shortly. [Android Market via Android Police] More »

They say a picture is worth a thousand words — but in this case, a picture is worth tens of billions of dollars in market share. Nielsen has broken down its US smartphone market share stats between November and January in two dimensions — by market share and by platform — and stuffed all that data into a single block of mesmerizing color. It’s interesting to see the Apple and RIM juggernauts flanked by two imposing, red slivers of HTC, isn’t it? The research firm also took a look at platforms by age group; the shares are surprisingly consistent across the board, though Android does have a slight edge with the young’uns. Follow the break for that chart.

Continue reading Visualized: US smartphone market share, by manufacturer and platform, made pretty

Visualized: US smartphone market share, by manufacturer and platform, made pretty originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android/Chrome (Windows): Google’s Cloud Print setup is a little rough around the edges right now, but the possibilities are looking nice. An Android app, for example, uses Dropbox and Cloud Print to fling almost anything you see or open on your Android over to your (Windows-connected) printer. More »

BGR has learned from multiple trusted sources that Research In Motion is planning to bring its beloved BlackBerry Messenger app and service to Android, and eventually to iOS as well. According to our sources, RIM has not yet finalized details surrounding timing or pricing, but we have heard that the company might make the software free to all users. We’re also told strategy is still being developed, however, and RIM may end up charging users a one-time fee or even a recurring fee for access to its BBM service on third-party platforms.

It might seem a bit strange for RIM to want to bring the software that is responsible for keeping BlackBerry devices in the hands of countless potential defectors, but in the big picture, we think it could make sense. The company is getting very frustrated with applications like WhatsApp and Kik offering third-party experiences based on a concept RIM invented, and RIM apparently wants to own the space.

As far as what Android and iOS users can look forward to, we’ve been told RIM will offer stripped down versions of the BBM experience BlackBerry owners know and love. That way, Android and iOS users can communicate with practically anyone who has a smartphone using BBM, but they might not be able to share photos, location, or videos (when RIM crosses that bridge). Users who want the full BlackBerry Messenger experience will still need a BlackBerry smartphone to get it. At the same time, RIM could own the entire messaging app category on every major smartphone OS platform and could potentially draw new users in because it has given them a taste of what BlackBerry Messenger is all about.

Right now, we have heard that Android is definitely a go. But again, we’re not sure on timing, though our sources are confident that it will launch some time this year. RIM chose Android first because of the fact that it could develop and integrate something like this much easier with an open platform, but the plan is to build and deploy an iOS version at some point as well.